Don’t forget manufacturers in low-carbon plans, Gordon

Well done the EEF. The manufacturers’ organisation is offering advice to companies to help them as they take advantage of the growing market for low carbon goods and services.

There will also be help with dealing with legislative requirements.

Manufacturing seems to have been forgotten in the latest slew of low-carbon energy technology initiatives coming out of government departments.

The Department of Energy and Climate Change’s £22m fund to promote commercial development of wave and tidal power generation technologists is a welcome development.

Then there is the £3.5m being spent on plans for installing low-carbon technology in houses in order to meet energy use targets.

While the significance of low-carbon technology for the struggling car industry does not seem to have been lost on the government which has dipped in to its economic rescue package to provide a £10m loan to Indian car maker Tata to develop a new hybrid vehicle in the UK.

The government plans for green investment were announced earlier in the year at the depths of the downturn, and now the commitment is being fulfilled. We can only hope that there are similar sustainable engineering initiatives in the pipeline for other sectors, namely electronics manufacturing.